I despise the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” cheer. The words are as follows:

McGill once, McGill twice, holy fucking Jesus Christ. Wham, bam, God damn, son of a bitch, shit! Three cheers for McGill: Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Three cheers for fucking: McGill! McGill! McGill!

Since the first time I heard that song, I never thought it to be anything more than a crude little piece of cheering that had little to do with the spirit of McGill. Yes, I get the point of the song. It’s supposed to be funny and to reflect a sense of school pride, but its vulgarity—combined with the amount of boorish behaviour I witnessed at the McGill-Concordia football game Friday night—is beyond annoying. Yes, football is a spectator sport, and it invites all sorts of lewd and debaucherous behavior, which is fine—as long as it’s in tune with the game. However, when you’re talking to your friends, swinging around your five dollar can of Molson Ex with your back turned to the game you supposedly came to watch (featuring a team from the school you supposedly support), things get a little bit pointless. Screaming and waving to your friend 50 rows back while you block my view is alright for maybe 10 seconds, but holding a full conversation while drunk from that distance gets quickly irritating for those caught in between.

My rant is especially addressed to the young gentleman from McConnell Hall, who wouldn’t shut up with the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” song, or stop smoking for the whole first half. I get that it’s cool to look like you’re the one starting the cheers all the time, and it makes you proud and allows you to fist pump with the boys when the cheer is done and you’ve officially done something for the university, but trust me, you’re not the first to try to rally the student body into singing a song that is, in itself, pretty bad. The cheer that exists to belittle Concordia would have made much more sense given the fact that we were, in fact, playing a football game against Concordia. This cheer, although also in the crass department, was maybe heard twice through the first half, while the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” cheer was sang every three minutes or so. The fascination with a song that has nothing to do with sports or rivalries or mentally intimidating the opposing team still astounds me.

I’m all for school spirit. I enjoy championing McGill, but this cheer has nothing to do with school spirit. My qualm with the song is that students will find any opportunity, in or out of school, to scream it at the top of their lungs. This is especially true during Frosh. On Lower Field, around other students, after a bunch of beers, cheer this song to your heart’s content. However, I do take offence when you’re screaming it on St. Catherine Street while a 10-year-old walks by, hand-in-hand with his mother. As a leader, I tried my best to vocalize the song strictly within the bounds of the campus, but there were always groups who were very raucous in their support of the cheer. I may be alone in my distaste, but even so, a modicum of decorum whilst cheering would be appreciated. I know the Concordia song is difficult to learn, longer, and more complicated, and I sympathize. But if you’re at a sporting event where we’re playing our in-town rivals, think about learning it. Maybe next time we can scream it together.